Boiling Against Ruling Blocs: Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela

KIEV, Ukraine — At least nine people were killed Tuesday in the deadliest day of the 3-month-old Ukrainian political crisis as security forces clashed with demonstrators and later stormed their encampment at Kiev’s Independence Square, local and international media reported.

… vowing to press on with their demands for Yanukovich’s resignation and parliamentary action to curb presidential powers, protesters marched toward parliament on Tuesday afternoon to press for restoration of the 2004 constitution that was amended after Yanukovich was elected in 2010. The demonstration turned angry when the Party of the Regions postponed debate on the legislative changes demanded by the opposition and police tried to block the estimated 20,000-strong procession from entering the parliament building.

LAT

BANGKOK — Four people, including a police officer, were killed and at least 64 were injured on Tuesday as antigovernment demonstrators resisted attempts by thousands of riot police officers to dislodge them from the streets surrounding the prime minister’s office.

Protesters, who for the past three months have sought to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and have hampered elections, remained defiant as thousands of officers cleared away barricades that protesters had erected on a bridge near key government offices.

NYT

CARACAS — Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Venezuela’s capital on Tuesday after troops arrested opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez on charges of fomenting unrest against the government and violence that has killed at least four people.

White-clad demonstrators blocked traffic in the streets of Caracas as a security vehicle holding the 42-year-old Harvard-educated economist crawled at a snail’s pace after he surrendered to security forces during an opposition rally.

Lopez’s arrest could galvanize the opposition and spur more street demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro, though there is no immediate sign the protests will topple the socialist leader.

Reuters

Chavez Pulls the Devil’s Tail

I happened to catch some of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s speech at the UN this morning. He was waving around a thick paperback by Noam Chomsky, recommending that it be read by all but especially “our brothers and sisters” here in the United States. From this Raw Story report is was Hegemony or Survival.

His speech had all the high color of fine bombast. The line that cracked me up was after he said that the Devil himself had been at the same podium yesterday — President Bush — and the place “still smells of sulpher.” Damn! I bet that didn’t come from a vetted speech writer.

Raw Story on Hugo Chavez

I’ll look to see if the whole speech is posted somewhere. I’d like to see all of Ahmedinejad’s too. It’s odd, reading through all the reports, only to get selected shorts with no ability to read the whole (translated) transcript. (Not that I would read it all myself, but it’s comforting to be able to dig in and test the reporters asserstions with one’s own evaluation.)

Venezuela Ama A Iran

Oh gnashing of teeth in D.C. over this little romance…

CIUDAD BOLIVAR, VENEZUELA — The VenIran tractor factory in remote eastern Venezuela is one of the signs of Iran’s growing presence in Venezuela, which is being monitored by a U.S. government on alert for any evidence that Iran might be exporting terrorism

STLtoday – News – World

US military sees oil nationalism spectre

Now this would be an interesting report to get hold of. Anyone see any mention of it elsewhere>

Future supplies of oil from Latin America are at risk because of the spread of resource nationalism, a study by the US military that reflects growing concerns in the US administration over energy security has found.

An internal report prepared by the US military’s Southern Command and obtained by the Financial Times follows a recent US congressional investigation that warned of the US’s vulnerability to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s repeated threats to “cut off” oil shipments to the US.

FT.com – US military sees oil nationalism spectre